There are a variety of different decoratives which are applied to various cloth surfaces. These decoratives are used in a variety of ways to provide information and decorative indicia upon cloth substrates. These transfers can vary depending upon the particular method of applying the transfer onto a cloth substrate, and can vary depending upon the indicia-bearing layer.
Cloth, specifically twill, is frequently used to apply lettering and numbers to jackets, jerseys and the like. Also, embroidered emblems are sewn onto shirts and caps. These are generally not heat bonded to the cloth substrate, but are simply sewn onto the cloth substrate.
When applying twill letters to a substrate, they tend to move. Thus, properly aligning these becomes difficult. This is a problem encountered with heat activated transfers. So U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,621 discloses a method to overcome this problem. It specifically discloses applying a pressure sensitive adhesive to a thermoplastic layer of a heat activated transfer. This allows the heat activated transfer to be temporarily adhered to the substrate without heat.
This has been attempted with twill lettering, but does not work. Generally, to use a pressure sensitive adhesive to bond twill to a cloth substrate requires a relatively thick layer of the pressure sensitive adhesive--generally in the neighborhood of 1 mil or more. When sewing this to the cloth substrate, the needle and thread are gummed up with the pressure sensitive adhesive, interfering with the application to the cloth substrate. Even when less than 1 mil is applied, this presents a significant problem.